


On the Country Side: Unforgiven

by o0Ruby_Firegem0o



Series: Country Bumpkin AU/ On The Country Side (Rhinocio Inspired) [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Country bumpkin au, F/F, Rhinocio Inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:09:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/o0Ruby_Firegem0o/pseuds/o0Ruby_Firegem0o
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sapphire was at the top of her moment for her age, and her family and her own ego didn’t let them see past the barrier, events turning to a different course as an accident will change her overall. Her emotions would be placed to the test as physically and mentally she would have to deal with “limitations”</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Country Side: Unforgiven

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a "Second" installment which is mostly the backstory of Sapphire and a bit of an explanation on why she is mostly blind of one eye and the reasons to it.
> 
> Any question and such go ahead and ask, I'm always open to suggestions.
> 
> Her second name "Haunani" means "Beautiful Snow" in Hawaiian. I think she has some family over up in Hawaii and they gave the name choice.

She had been waiting for years, watching up her grandpa and then her father work on the rodeo as long as her memory takes her, since small loving being among the country men and women and interested in each and every sport. From barrel race to the famous rodeo, all of them ran in their veins and she was sure to continue up on their legacy as well. Her and her family took a trip over to one of the important county competitions and Sapphire was all but jumping in one leg, overjoyed of the sighting as she was happy that she was participating herself on it and on the big leagues and not local competitions. She walked along with her grandparents and over to the entrance tables, so to get over her number and inscribe herself on what she was participating in. She saw familiar places along in the line and she rooted for them and as well them to her for being over till she finally got in front.

“What’s yer name missy and wadya participating in?” The bearded man asked at her, taking up notes on the paper.

“Sapphire Haunani and ‘am participating up in Bull riding” She answered as the man looked at her, as if she was joking “Yes Bull riding don’t be surprised pops, I’m quite good at it” She glared as the man took up notes and gave her the paper with her number.

“Here ya go missy, luck on the ring, ya brave for such young age” He said as she left and called for the next one.

She smiled over and nodded,she might not even be in her twenties but hell she rode like those above her and older and quite confident that she was going to nail this right till the end as she walked over to see the rest of the place with her gramps and see how things were around. The place was big, passing by over beautiful horses and up also local shops, buying herself a new hat over, as a souvenir from her stay here and as a reminder of her biggest career step.

Hours passed, as she was getting giddy, anxious and exited overall of this with that twinge of fear as well, nothing odd, it always happened before any run and today wasn’t an exception. She went over to the back of the ring, along with her gramps as he helped her prepare herself for the big run, getting on her equipment to place it on. She got into her chaps, her gloves, vest and finally the new hat she got, smiling over as she heard over the speakers that the competitions were starting now on the bull riding and she got over to the metal fence to watch up her opponents and see the bulls itself, seeing what were the ones that she was going to compete over. They presented them all as well as all the bulls that were participating and Sapphire was surprised to see that beside her another woman as well was trying, so she didn’t felt that left out, though she never did, she was aware this was a men sport and she was making just the difference.

Bull after bull and rider after rider, saw them pass, fail or almost get mauled over from the two thousand pounds of pure muscle and rage, bucking rider all over the pit, and that filled her with adrenaline. She knew soon her name would come up and quickly got over to the back of the bull cages, her gramps right behind her confident of her granddaughter and she would nail this sports that was leaded on mostly by men. As if she got near, she heard her name over the P.A. System, as if she fortold and she felt butterflies in her stomach, like those on a first time in anything and she knew it was good. Butterflies were always good, they heightened her senses and made her prep up for whatever was going to come over at her and she was ready for everything. She heard over also the name of the bull she was facing, and definitely a name fit for the bull itself; World’s End. Cream and white, bulky, long horns, one of them slightly crooked, and a tad bit sharp, truly, a beast at least that’s she was been hearing along from what the people have been murmuring, though one recurring comment that came from everyone that no one has stayed the eight full second on top of him, and that enough was a challenge she would accept and be the first one then to make it.

“Good luck” Her gramps told her and hugged her, quickly getting over the fence to help her up.

“Thanks pappy” She responded back, getting over the fence and on to the bull.

The same was calmed, shifting ears as she prepped herself upon the beast, being helped by the other members to get a good grip on her rope to not let go too fast, pulling at the end of the rope to tighten it and go around her hand once. ‘I can do this, I CAN DO THIS!’ She mentally chanted, shifting her position I top of the bull again to make sure she was right where she wanted to. She took a minute and checked everything and looked once at the timer ‘eight seconds it’s all I need’ she told herself before looking back at the head of the bull and nodded that she was ready, seeing everyone move and pulling at the latch, the gate opening and letting them out, bull full force and her right on top. Bull bucked and spun and tried to get her off and sapphire all but maintained as much as she could on top of it, careful to not touch the bull with her free hand since the bucking was hard and her hand wavered a few times too close. Time went slow and she gripped hard, focusing on keeping balance as she did, but the more she maintained herself on top, worst the bull got, worrying slightly of her exit but the thought ended abruptly. She went forward and the bulls heads whipped back hard, smacking hard right of her face with its horns and she lost it, losing quickly her balance and dropping to the side.

But not out of danger.

She touched the floor, but was dragged by the bull, her spurs being stuck at the rope as the bull kept bucking her off, jumping and kicking and hitting actually a few times when she got to the floor. She briefly between her dizziness, saw the bullfighters trying to get her off and eventually she did on her own, dropping limply as she heard them get the bull away. As she lay there, she felt pain overall consciousness slipping away as her vision turned red, the last thing she saw was people running towards where she was and then everything fading to black.

She woke, feeling pain and sore all over her body, something bothering at her throat as she felt she was gagging and in reflex she moved her hand to try and pull whatever it was off but quickly saw her gramps up by her side holding her down, strange though her vision couldn’t focus well at all, whining and struggling though pain didn’t let her move more than what she wanted. Questions came to her head quick, analyzing where she was in the first place, trying to gather her thoughts up, but coming vague on some details, trying to calm down as she saw her gramps leave for a minute and come back with a doctor. She was in a hospital.

“Hello sapphire, you were lucky to start” The doctor said as she looked at him, he quickly checking her up “I’m going pull off the tube from your throat, I know its bothering, so I need you to help out. When I say cough, do so as hard as you can” He said she blinked at him, her face eager to get the annoying tube out as the doctor got over the gloves. “Here we go”

As told, he pulled at the tube and indicated her to cough, doing do as the tube was out, she coughing for a while as she felt her throat sore.

“What happened…” Her voice was hoarse, throat dry as she looked at her gramps and at the doctor, her gramps face serious.

“You had a horrible accident up at the bull riding competition” Saw her face change completely, pale “You have been out for a few days, you had a massive concussion on your head from the various impacts you received between other things”

“Other things…? Explain…” Her voice sounded commanding, wanting to know what else happened.

The doctor looked at her and started, knowing she wouldn’t be happy with half answers “You have fractured right hand, and lower arm, two broken ribs on the left side, fractured jaw on the right side and a few fractures on the spine, also you almost lost the right eye as well. You will barely see from it, severe ocular damage due impact but we salvaged the eye at least, and of course cuts and bruises every everywhere” Saw her heave, panic evident.

Sapphire took deep breaths, each one burning in her chest as she looked at herself, arm in a cast, feeling with her other hand her face and getting to a state of panic. Slowly she remembered the bull, and the impact of the same, but after that her mind went completely blank. “Oh my god…” She barely breathed, shocked right till her very core.  
“Sapphire, Jewel, calm down” He comforted her as she leaned on his chest sobbing, letting her process the whole info as he caressed at her back carefully, letting her let it out.

Her gramps brought the video of the event, and she saw the whole mess, remembering at least till the people ran over, but seeing it from the camera view seemed more gruesome. The impact on her head various times after the main horn butt, and how the bull stomped at her hand and arm from the angle she was hanging, the ribs was when she got finally down a final kick on the bull as the bullfighters got it away as fast as they could, she looked dead from that angle, limp and bloodied and she couldn’t help but get teary eyed as her heart clenched. Everyone was quiet, watching as they got her over in the longboard to get her out fast and her eyes soon darted over towards the timer, reading in red ‘7.90’

“So close…” she mumbled as she wiped her face, hissing in pain slightly as her face was swollen, seeing she was literally just few millisecond’s away from victory and now by her diagnostic, she would have to take it easy. “Next time I’ll get him”

Her gramps looked at her, with a sad expression “Jewel, ya can’t ride again; your spine is compromised, if ya do, ya might end on a bed for life.”

His words hit her like chilled iced water, as she froze when she heard the words “Pappy, this is my life, it can’t end here!” she quickly defended and saw him serious on what he meant and that it was definite answer he had “No. NO! I can’t accept that!”

“I’m sorry, it’s true” he sighed and saw her frown, new tears welling up in her eye. “Fractures on yer spine are up in the neck ones that are the important ones, that’s what da doctor said”

She looked at him and gritted her teeth, her jaw screaming in pain but she didn’t care, this was a low blow from life and she didn’t like it at all, as she looked at herself, crying.

By the next days, the doctor removed up her bandaged face and saw the true damage, her eye barely was open –the swollen areas pretty much has its fault there- and the large gash over her eye, along with minor cuts and the jaw stitches. Her face remained unnerved, as she traced up the wounds, and simply scoffed, life already played her cards and this is the outcome of the same, accepting it till a certain degree but not convinced overall. She was given therapy to see how her motors skills were working after the impacts on her head and in a week tops; she was walking out of the hospital finally, out of the bed prison and smelling the fresh air. The ride back was long, but it gave her time to access the situation at hand and the probabilities, now that perhaps bull riding was out of the question. Bull riding… she would never get back on a bull and that bothered her, anger evident as she gripped her hand in a fist but loosen it after, time would tell that, she just needed that. Time.

Back at her place, she never felt so useless, unable to do anything and still adjusting to the whole new vision concept. She could only saw blur up on her right eye, and since she couldn’t open it completely it didn’t helped as well grunting in frustration when depth perception played with her. Day after day she struggled, sometimes heading towards the barn and staying there sobbing in frustration that she couldn’t do anything right, depression hitting rock bottom to the point she barely got out of the house. She stayed there in her room, remembrance hitting her as she remembered each day her father and grandfather taught her how to handle it in the barn, from there taking care of the animals and kept up till finally them teaching her how to mount. She couldn’t mount, she couldn’t take care of everything again and she was invalid. Many of the things she loved to do where now limited and that’s what bothered her more than anything, and anyone. She sighed, thinking than like those times she would have to learn to do things all over again to a certain level, and really bothered her, but it was either that or dwell, so she decided to get back on business and at least do minor things, for now, banging at the cast as it was annoying her life out, heavy and dragging it over.

Weeks passed, and finally her cast was removed, she never felt freer without it, so she could say the cast was holding her back, slowly flexing up her arms as it had been for the same position for a long, long time but of course had to be careful still, minor work on the arm since it had been a stiff. Since the cast was long gone, she was sure to now get back to basics, helping her gramps and grams on the house, and doing minor chores, being exercise for the hand and arm itself. It took time but she decided it was for the best, learning to the patient and work on things on their own accord. She let her hair grew up in front, so to cover up most part of her eye since it bothered her still and to avoid the onlookers, her good eye briefly visible, but her right covered over, after all she didn’t used it. Day after day she worked hard, tending the animals, cleaning the barn and next day better than the last as she got better with her hand and her sight worked on her favor. There were limitations here and there, of course, but that didn’t stop her at all eventually she finally got into the back of horses, even if she couldn’t stay long on them, but it was better than being grounded on her own two feet. Made her feel back at her spot even if it weren’t a competition and she thought this then was a better than before, seeing the good parts of life shine upon her and her future, she got more out and mingled up with the people, seeing thigs that perhaps before she didn’t and enjoying life in a new perspective.

Perhaps life wouldn’t be that bad, but time would tell that, though she knew this was definitely for a reason, because sometimes destiny can play in mysterious ways and certain outcomes come from these previous events in life itself.


End file.
